Cloth-tentering apparatus



A ril 29, 1924.

r G. W. ROBERTSON CLOTH TENTERING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 10. 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 A TTORIVEKS Mmm m U A l/WE/VTOR G. WRober-sov,

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 VIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 'IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII G. W. ROBERTSON CLOTH TENTERING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 10

WITNESSES Patented Apr. 29, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATE NT orrlcs.

, 'AND DAN RIVER COTTON MILLS,

CORPORATION 01 VIRGINIA.

INC.

F PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY, VIRGINIA, A

' cmmn-rniwrname Armm'rus.

Application filed November 10,1922. Serial 1%. 600,140.

To al whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE WILMOT' United States,

and .a resident of Danville, in the county of t Pitts'ylvania and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improve- ROBERTSON, a citizen of the ments in Cloth-Tentering Apparatus, of,

which the following is a specification. My present invention relates generally to cloth tentering apparatus, and more articularly to apparatus for stretching an drying a continuously moving cloth web commonly used in the final drying of cotton piece goods before these goods are rolled for shipment. l5 Machines of this nature commonly include endless stretching chains, working along op posite sides of a stretching frame by which they are guided, and provided with grippers which engage the o posite sides of the goods at the receiving en of the stretching frame and in the course of movement along the frame, pull the goods to a suflicien't extent to take out all wrinkles. The stretching frame extends through a housing forming therein a drying chamber and supplied "with v the necessary heat for drying purposes so that the oods while passing along the frame and whi e held stretched by the grippers, will dry smooth and ass from the stretching device in such condition when released by the grippers at the discharge end of the stretching frame.

Tenter ng machines as now used are of considerable length, and a cloth in a wet or damp condition from a previous sizing or filling operation is at present fed directly to the receiving end of the stretching frame. It becomes apparent therefore that in order that the web may be delivered in a dry state from thedischar end of the stretching device, this 'consi erable length of the machine as a whole is not only necessary, but it is also necessary that the goods be run comparatively slowly through the machine. Theserequirements, that is considerable length of machine and slow moving of the web are of considerable disadvantage in that a great amount of floor space is taken up for the finishing of cloth and it becomes even then somewhat difiicult to finish cloth in a mill as fast as it is produced on account of necessarily slow movement of the web through the tentering machines.

My present invention seeks to avoid these disadvantages and in such manner that floor s ace will be economized in connection with t e mounting of new machines and those machines already in use may, with minimum change, be adapted to permit of running of cloth therethrough at a substantially increased s eed with respect to that'nov'v possible an still discharge the cloth in an equally dry state. e construction proposed by my present invention for the above purpose is particularly useful owing to its adaptability tomachines now in operation and especially in view of the fact that it may be so applied practically without loss of time and without shutdown of the machine. y

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate my present invention and form a part of this specification,

Figure 1 is atop plan view illustrating the practical application of my invention, Figure 2 is a side elevation thereof, Figure 3 is an enlarged vertical transverse section taken substantially on line 33 of Figure 2, and

Figure 4 is a partial verticaFlongitudinal section taken substantially on line H of Fi ure 3.

eferring now to these figures and particularly to Figures 1, 2 and 3, I have shown at 10 in Figures 1 and 2 a portion of the stretching frame which forms a part of the machine and extends for its major portion through the housing 11 forming therein a drying chamber 12, the'frame functioning to guide the stretchin chains 13 seen in Figure 3 and provide with cloth ippers 14 for engagement with opposite sides of the moving 0 0th web 15.

At the receivin end of the stretchin frame 10, the clot web is at present fed directly thereto from a guide roller 16 seen in Figure 2 and mounted in a guide roller frame 17 substantially above the level of the stretching frame and at or about the level of the top of the housing 11. I

Up to this dpoint the apparatus may be of the type an construction commonly emplo ed, with any suitable stretching frame an chains and with any of the various types of cloth gripping members and it is to be understood that my invention may be applied to an apparatus of this general nature irrespective of the particular construction of these various parts.

For the pro er carrying out of the stretching and (ryin operation at present the a paratus is usuafi about ninety feet in lengt 1 and even with tliis length which thus requires considerable floor space, it is necessary to run the cloth web at a comparatively slow rate of speed through the apparatus in order that it may be dried while stretched and delivered from the discharge end of the apparatus in a proper state. In the machines as now used the cloth web passes through the receiving end of the apparatus in a wet state from a previous sizing or filling operation, and according to my invention I propose to expose the web to the drying action of the chamber 12 to a sufficient extent to partly dry the cloth before its passage to the receiving end of the stretching device whereby the web will be more quickly dried while in the grip of the stretching chains and in this way either the length of the apparatus may be lessened or the speed of movement of the cloth web increased, or both, it being understood-that in the preliminary partial dryin ot' the web before its passage to the stretching device drying action will only be proceeded with to that point which will still permit wrinkles to be drawn out of the cloth in the final drying while in the grip of the stretching chains.

To accomplish the above with minimum change in the apparatus as a whole and without requiring delays and shutdowns, I propose to slot the top 18 of the housing 11 lengthwise thereof as at 19 in Figure 3 and superpose upon this top 18 a lengthwise downwardly opening box 20 in which transverse guide rollers 21 are superposed at lengthwise spaced points in order to provide for circuitous travel of the web 15. It will be understood that the length of the guide boxing 20 may vary with the requirements and should be of such length as to preliminarily dry the web 15 to as full an extent as is possible and still deliver the web to the stretching device in such a state that it will finally dry without wrinkles while in the grip of the stretching chains.

It will be observed that on account of the slot 19, the interior of the boxing 20 is exposed throughout its entire length to the drying chamber 12 and it will be seen by reference to Figures 2 and 4 in particular that with my improvement in use the web 15 passes into the receiving end of the boxing 20 and through the series of guide rollers 21 and thence back out of the receiving end of the boxing and downwardly around a guide roller 22 which latter guide roller may be mounted on the frame 17 supporting the before mentioned guide roller 16. Thus in view of the doublin of the web within the preliminary drying ex 21, extension of this box for one half the length of the housing 11 has the effect of doubling the exposure of the cloth web to the drying action of the chamber 12 as compared to the usual machine so that in the ordinary machine the speed of movement of the web may be conslderably increased. Thus as applied to machines airead in use my invention is particularly use ul when it is considered that the boxing 20 may be applied practically without shutdown of the apparatus as a whole and with the loss of ve little time. On the other hand in connection with the mounting of new machines it is quite obvious the length of the apparatus as a whole-may be considerably reduced and the preliminary drying box extended for this purpose the full length of the drying chamber with considerable economy in floor space as a result.

I claim:

1. In a cloth tentering machine including a housing forming a drying chamber therein, and a cloth stretching device extending through the chamber, cloth uidlng means in the upper portion of said chamber and exposed thereto, arranged to receive a moving cloth web and to expose the same to the drying action of said chamber before passage of said web to the said stretching devlce.

2. A cloth tentering machine including a housing forming a drying chamber therein, and a cloth stretching device extending through the chamber, said housing having along its upper portion cloth guiding rollers arranged to receive a cloth web and expose the same to the drying action of the chamber before its passage to the stretching device.

3. A cloth tentering machine including a housing forming a drying chamber therein, and a cloth stretching device extending through the chamber, said housing having a lengthwise slot in the top thereof, a boxing over the slot and exposed thereby to the drying chamber, and a lengthwise series of transverse guide rollers supported in said boxing for the purpose described.

4. A cloth tentering apparatus embodying means for drying cloth and a stretching device wherein the cloth is simultaneously subjected to a drying and stretching action, and also embodying auxiliar means for subjecting the cloth to a pre iminary d ing action before its delivery to the stretc ing device.

GEORGE WILMOT ROBERTSON. 

